[1] Born in Terre Haute, Indiana, to Jewish immigrants from Poland, he moved to Paris in 1932, surviving the Holocaust in hiding in central France.

Schulman returned to the United States in the 1950s and was drafted to the US Army during the Korean War, serving two years training soldiers at Camp Edwards on Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

In March 1947, Schulman was instructed by a contact in the Haganah in New York to go to Baltimore, Maryland, where he thought he would board a ship as a passenger to British-mandate Palestine.

Arriving in the port of Haifa in January 1948, Schulman headed south to help settle Kibbutz Mishmar HaNegev with friends he knew from his youth movement days in France.

In June 1987, Schulman and other Aliya Bet volunteers were honored by Israeli President Chaim Herzog for their contributions to the State of Israel.

"[13]In November 2018, Schulman received a medal and certificate from Israeli Minister of Jerusalem and Heritage Affairs, Ze'ev Elkin, for his contribution to bringing Jewish immigrants to Mandatory Palestine.

After the war, Schulman studied at Brooklyn College and then at the Joseph Bulova School of Watchmaking in Queens, NY, on the GI Bill.

He went on to set up a watchmaking business in the diamond exchange district on Canal Street and the Bowery in lower Manhattan where he worked for 40 years.